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Monday, 28 December 2015

Enjoying Shingeki no Kyojindoesn’t mean you
have to adore its various spin-offs. I watched the live-action movies recently,
and can’t say I enjoyed them very much despite impressive visuals. The manga
version of this gag spin-off also hasn’t been received too well, though I
haven’t actually read it myself. But fully accepting it’s just a silly bit of
comedy fanservice, I thoroughly enjoyed Chiugakkou.

I tuned in for the first episode and the new premise
amused me quite a bit – exaggerated, silly versions of our main characters are
attending a school split between humans and titans. Eren’s grudge comes not
from personal loss but because his lunch was stolen and eaten. In fact, that’s
what the nefarious titans do here – invade the school grounds of the poor
defenceless humans and steal their bento. It’s silly and fun and I really like
the characters rendered in such cutesy styles, especially Eren and Armin.

Character traits are amplified in the ways fandoms
enjoy. Levi is an authoritarian upperclassman obsessed with cleaning and rules.
Mikasa’s skills are superhuman and her devotion to an oblivious Eren boundless.
Armin for some reason is extremely susceptible to the cold and needs to go
everywhere wrapped in his futon.

The 12-episode season treads the usual ground for
school comedies. The kids take part in sports days and go to a matsuri, where
romance is in the air. There are mix-ups with love letters and fierce
competition to be student president. It’s silly, innocuous stuff and much of
the humour comes from seeing these characters who are usually in such a serious
and grim setting transposed to one that’s so light and fluffy. I’d say it works
better than it ever did for Full Metal Panic!

I’m not saying this is a superb anime or one to
recommend highly. It’s cheaply-done, unoriginal and the laughs aren’t on a par
with the likes of Azumanga Daiohor Nichijou. It’s very much a
by-the-numbers comedy spin-off that plays it safe and follows a formula. But
that’s all I wanted from it, and it certainly succeeded.

Saturday, 19 December 2015

I must say, though I liked Despicable Mea
lot, I’ve been very surprised by the enduring popularity of the minions. They
were slightly irritating in the films, though occasionally funny or cute or
both. But through popular adulation or the power of forced marketing, they’re
ubiquitous, especially in East Asia. In both Japan and Taiwan, there’s a profusion of soft
toys of the things, even though I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything else
relating to DespicableMe.

So perhaps it made sense to give the minions their
own vehicle, which box office numbers show certainly did draw more of an international audience than a
new Despicable Me film would have. On the other hand, it’s extremely
hard to shift focus fully onto comic relief without making a film with a strong
smell of direct-to-video sequel. Minions does not manage to avoid this,
at all.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean this isn’t an
enjoyable and silly film, and it being set in London with a lot of familiar
locations gave it bonus points for me.

After a prologue showing minions attempting to serve
evil figures throughout history, we find out that in the 60s, they were left
bereft of a master or mistress. Thus, intrepid minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob set off to find the most despicable being on earth to serve.

At a convention, they discover and win the
affections of the wonderfully-named Scarlet Overkill, an American femme
fatale with designs on the Crown of England.

The plot as it unfolds is very silly and
anything-goes, but that works just fine. But this film can’t hold a candle to Despicable
Me or its satisfying sequel. The thing is, those films have a lot of heart,
and the minions are just cute comic relief on the edge of that. This film,
while fun and silly, is almost bereft of anything you could call heart. There’s
no real emotional stakes here, and for that reason, everything stays
superficial. That makes this a functional kids’ film that will keep the
littlest ones entertained but nothing more.

Welcome to Adziu's small corner

Welcome to my little blog, here in this small corner.
Over the years I have seen a few hundred animated series and movies, and the purpose of this blog is to house my impressions. This is not intended to be a daily blog with impressions of each episode: I write my thoughts only after viewing something complete. Several have been imported from previous blogs dating back to 2005 - as well as drawing from journals from as early as 1999!
Now, please do sit, enjoy the fire, have a mug of something warm and put in a comment or two.